How fit are you? 3 simple tests to evaluate your strength, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness

"Most entrepreneurs are familiar with diminishing returns: how, when other variables stay constant, at some point putting in additional time and effort results in increasingly smaller results. Since resources are always limited, figuring out where to spend your entrepreneurial time so it delivers the best bang per hour is critical. That same premise extends to health and fitness. If you're like many entrepreneurs, you try to stay reasonably fit not just because it's good for you, but because exercise helps you perform better under stress."

"Can elevate your mood for up to 12 hours. Can even make you a little smarter. Still: how healthy and fit . . . is healthy and fit enough? If you want to run a marathon, your definition of "fit" will differ from most. But if you want to compare yourself with other people and see where you currently stand-and, more important, get a sense of where you would like to stand-here are three simple tests you can do at home."

"To conduct this test, find a chair that, when you sit on it, puts your thighs at a 90-degree angle to your lower legs. Then put your hands on your hips, lower yourself until your bottom grazes the chair, and then straighten back up. Then do as many reps as you can, without resting, until you run out of (leg) gas."

Diminishing returns apply to fitness as they do to entrepreneurship, so prioritize activities that deliver the highest benefit per unit time. Exercise improves stress performance, elevates mood for up to twelve hours, and can enhance cognition. Fitness goals determine how 'fit' should be defined; endurance athletes require different standards. Three simple at-home tests allow comparison with others and assessment of current conditioning. Scoring in the average range indicates sufficient fitness for many purposes, while excellent results suggest additional training may yield diminishing returns. One practical test measures lower-body strength via repeated chair squats to failure, which can be improved with structured sets three times weekly.

Read at Fast Company